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Special Session: In Honor of Dr. Albert W. Bally

Special Session

Monday, 8 June 2020, 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. | Houston, Texas

Late in July 2019, the geocommunity lost one
of its icons. Dr. Albert W. Bally passed away at
the age of 94 after a long career that not only
helped usher in the era of integrated geology
and geophysics as applied to exploration, but
also gifted the industry with his influence on
numerous students and colleagues.

It is impossible to exaggerate the impact that Bert has had not
only on the petroleum industry but also on the broad spectrum
of the earth sciences. From his numerous highly influential
publications to his many colleagues and the multitude of his
students, the worldwide influence that Bert exerted is legendary.
He touched many lives in professional ways, but also was a
great friend to many. He received guests from everywhere, and
along the way was invited to visit every corner of the earth,
including being one of the earliest western geologists to visit
the Peoples’ Republic of China. His counsel was in demand
constantly. Insofar as he had an encyclopedic knowledge of
regional geology, his biggest legacy will be the marriage of
regional geology, seismic reflection data, maps, cross sections,
and the concept of restoration in all its ramifications. There
were many awards including the William Smith Medal from
Geological Society of London, the Gustav Steinmann Medal from
the Geologische Vereinigung, the Sidney Powers Medal from
the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, and the
Offshore Technology Conference Career Contribution Award for
Structural Geology.

Born to Dutch and Swiss parents, Bert spent his youth in pre-
WWII fascist Italy, but moved to Switzerland for the war years
themselves. He returned to Italy to complete his Ph.D. field work
while at the University of Zurich, after which he did post-doctoral
studies at Lamont-Doherty. In 1954 he joined Shell in Canada
where he began to make his first marks in the profession with
a seminal publication by himself, Gordy, and Stewart in 1966
on thrust geometries of the North American Cordillera. That
paper not only married seismic work to the field but also laid
part of the foundation for what might be called a ‘revolution’
in understanding thrust geology. He moved to Shell’s lab in
Houston and rose through several chief geologist and consulting
roles within the company, during which he conceptually guided
Shell into the era of offshore exploration, sparking some
of the earliest modern understanding of the Gulf of Mexico
and salt tectonics. He was fond of the idea of an atlas and,
in 1975 with Cook published the Stratigraphic Atlas of North
and Central America at Princeton University Press. In 1981 he
assumed the Harry Carothers Wiess Professor of Geology in The
Department of Geology and Geophysics at Rice University, which
he maintained all the way to his death. Shortly after formally
entering the academic world, he continued his Atlas work
with AAPG’s Seismic Atlases of structural and stratigraphic
style in reflection data. As department head at Rice, he was
instrumental in the resuscitation of the department. He was the
Centennial President of the Geological Society of America in
1988 and played a formative godfather-like role in the Decade of
North American Geology volumes, a compilation of the geology
of the continent—a sourcebook to this day.

The Petroleum and Geomechanics Division is proud to dedicate
two oral and two poster sessions to the memory of Dr. Bally,
organized and chaired by some of his numerous students and
mentorees. The papers are a collection of submissions, many
of which were specifically aimed at this memorial. We hope the
community enjoys the result and finds the content interesting
and useful. May you rest in peace, Bert—your work is done.